Social Media: An Opportunity for Psychiatrists
By Holly Peek, MD, MPH; July 09, 2014; http://www.psychiatrictimes.com

DIGITAL MEDIA IN PSYCHIATRY

Psychiatry residents and early-career psychiatrists were among the first to engage in social media when it's in their college dorm rooms. Facebook began in 2004 as an interactive directory for individuals, to talk about photographs and basic information. Ten years later, your website now boasts over a billion users worldwide and include anyone 13 years or older in addition to businesses, organizations, celebrities, and political figures. Although Facebook was the first popular Web site available, social media marketing now encompasses various forms of media with popular sites for example YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Along while using exploding popularity of social media marketing over the past decade came the potential pitfalls for a lot of young adults entering graduate schools in addition to their early careers. Personal pictures, posts, and data have become easily available on the Internet, prompting schools, training directors, and employers to screen applicants by trying to find them online before offering interviews or a job. Furthermore, it is usually even more concerning that someone may stumble across facts about personal drinkng venues. Unfortunately, as the first generation of social media users have entered their early careers, a feeling of fear has swept within the online communication scene, with lots of of these users disengaging altogether.

However, rather than viewing social media marketing as a potential catalyst for any career downfall, it can be an extremely worthwhile career chance of psychiatrists. The current generation of residents and early-career psychiatrists have essentially been engaged in social media marketing for longer than any other generation. This means they're more likely to know how to use the technology and they are more used to readily sharing their thoughts and ideas through this very public platform. Re-creating an online presence from personal to professional has many perks.

Engaging in social websites as a psychiatrist is essential because our patients spend a significant quantity of their time online, which is where they receive their information. The average Internet user inside the US spends 32 hours a month online, with 22% of now spent on social media marketing sites. Furthermore, smartphone users average 24 minutes per day using online community apps.1 While spending this time around on the Internet, users are doing a lot more than casually socializing using their peers. In fact, in accordance with the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 72% of adult online users have searched the Internet for health-related information in the past year. A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers has additionally shown that one-third of social media marketing consumers are making use of it for health-related issues. This includes watching online videos, reading stories on a Web site or blog, registering with receive alerts and e-mails, or joining a health-related group on a social networking site.

More than traditional Web sites, social media has changed the landscape of how psychiatrists can make use of the Internet. It has unlocked doors for open conversations among physicians, patients, and the general public. We have the ability to disseminate knowledge of evidence-based strategies, provide context to mental health stories in the media, and dispel myths. There are certainly those who are putting false, misleading, and potentially harmful facts about the Internet. Therefore we, as mental health professionals, should use social networking in a beneficial way by sharing our expertise and knowledge inside the field.

Arguably, there's more stigma associated with psychiatric disorders than with some other health problems; this affects patients’ mental health outcomes and, on the larger scale, funding and resources accessible to us and our patients. Social media is our opportunity to give voice for the fight against stigma by educating the population about mental health.

No discussion about social media is complete without speaking about maintaining professionalism online. Because social media use for physicians is really a relatively new and evolving phenomenon, professional organizations such as the AMA are now creating guidelines for appropriate use. It is essential for almost any physician using social media marketing to review these guidelines: Opinion 9.124—Professionalism inside Use of Social Media. By following them, any trepidation about entering the social media scene may be alleviated.

Instead of avoiding social media marketing altogether, I encourage mental medical researchers to embrace this new and exponentially growing mode of communication. It is essential we align ourselves while using public and our patients both to disseminate accurate information and to teach. Social media permits us to have this public voice as part of your before. Psychiatry residents and early-career psychiatrists certainly come with an advantage within this arena because many have been using social websites for the past decade. However, digital media is not simply for younger psychiatrists; experts of all ages have become embracing the social networking world. Learning how to use digital tools to teach patients, engage the public, and ultimately advocate for mental health is often a skill worth preparing our professional repertoire.